Fish Out of Water
by quidditchchick004
Summary: Nagisa is a young merman who is fascinated by humans despite his father's distaste for them. He decides to swim to the surface to learn about them firsthand. He spots a blue-haired human running on the beach and is stunned by his beauty. After saving said human from drowning in a storm, Nagisa can't get him off of his mind and eventually asks the sea witch to turn him into a human.
1. Prologue

Prologue

The mershark glanced over his shoulder to make sure he was not being followed as he swam further and further away from the city. He had never been followed before, nor did he think he ever would be, but it was a nervous habit that he couldn't seem to shake after having made this swim so many times in the past; and if there was ever a day to have something to be nervous about, it was definitely today.

After the regular 30 minute swim, he reached colder waters and took a deep breath to relax himself as he dove down deeper into the trench below him. The dark and the cold never bothered him before, but today was a different matter. He wasn't able to get what he needed…what _she_ needed; and without it, he feared he had nothing else to offer for the exchange.

Many might have found it foolish that he still decided to go empty-handed and that it would have been wiser to just stay at home and return another time when he had something to offer; but he had no time today. This was a very last minute thing and it was urgent. He didn't have what she wanted, but he knew she liked to bargain, so surely he had something else he could offer the sea witch. Anything.

One, two, three, four holes down the side of the trench's slimy wall, unseen to those who were not looking for them. He reached his hand into the fourth and uttered the incantation. The two eels he had grown to be so familiar with emerged from two of the holes above him and smirked once they saw him.

"Mistress was not expecting you today. She'll be pleased to see you again so soon." They chanted in unison.

_She won't be once she found out he didn't have what she wanted today_, he thought as he felt the two eels wrap themselves around his body in their own amusement before swimming back through the holes, opening the hidden door, and letting him in. He swam through the narrow cave and did not flinch when the odd plant-life growing on the sides grazed him as he passed. The many times he swam this passage had gotten him used to it, so he was not afraid. Unfortunately, he was still afraid of the sea witch herself.

She was an aging octopus; how old exactly, he did not know, but she was quite an ugly one at that. The last to ever mention her age and ugliness had done so to her face and he ended up being strangled by one of her deadly tentacles as a result. So the mershark made sure to never say a word about it.

He'd been bargaining with her for nearly a year now, and in a normal situation and a normal acquaintance, you might gain trust within that time. The sea witch, however, was not a normal acquaintance. She did whatever she wanted and had no boundaries; she was cunning and unpredictable. The mershark knew he was at a high risk by making bargains with her, but he _had_ to. He had no other way of doing his job on the surface, and without this job he could not feed his family.

He reached the end of the cave where an odd bowl of coral sat, the place where she would mix up potions and other magical things the mershark did not know the names of. And there she was, lounging in a giant clam shell chair, looking at herself in a hand mirror. She did that quite often, despite her ugliness; but he knew the true reason for that.

She looked up from her mirror once he had fully entered the room. "Back so soon?" She asked with an odd cheery tone to her voice. "So, how long will it be for this time? A week? Two weeks?"

"I only need two days."

"Oh? That's the shortest you've ever requested." She laughed. "That doesn't mean I'm lowering the price any."

"I wasn't expecting you to." He swallowed. "But I don't…I don't have a payment for you today."

There was a flash of anger in her eyes, but it subsided quickly and her expression softened. She was always skilled at keeping her composure. "Oh? And what makes you think I'd give you something for nothing? Just because you've done business with me for a while does not mean I'll give you any favors."

"I wasn't expecting to get something for nothing. Is there something else I can offer you?"

"Well, I'm not sure. What else could you possibly offer me that is more valuable than the black jellyfish you have been trading me?"

"I-I don't know." He looked at the ground. "But there must be _something_. I have never been more needed on the surface. It is an emergency and I need to be up there by tonight."

The sea witch sat up from the comfort of her chair, floated lazily around the room, and hummed a nameless tune; her two eels swam around her and she petted them softly and whispered to them. "What do _you_ think, my lovelies? Think he's desperate enough to go for it?" Her eels whispered back, but it was too quiet to hear. "Yes, I have been waiting a while, but I think it just might work. All right, let's try it." She swam quickly back to her chair and faced the mershark. "I have a proposition for you."

"Name it!"

"Your _children_ are well, aren't they?"

His breath caught in his throat. "Y-yes…"

"Good, good. How old is your daughter again?"

"She's six. But what does she have to do with this?" He asked defensively.

"Six?" She sighed. "Such a long time to wait. But I suppose I can be patient."

"What are you talking about?"

She grinned and summoned a scroll before him. "A contract. Sign this, and we'll have a deal."

"And what exactly is _in_ this contract?"

"Read for yourself, if you wish."

He didn't take his eyes off of her as he reached for the scroll and only looked away to read the words on it. His eyes widened in disgust halfway through reading and he angrily threw the scroll in her direction.

"You'll _own _my daughter once she turns 16?! What kind of contract is this?! What makes you think I'd ever agree to something like this?!"

She looked slightly disappointed. "Aww, you won't even _think_ about it?"

"Hell no!"

"But it's ten years away. You'll still have the joy of getting to raise her, and just when she comes to that difficult age, you can get that burden off of your hands."

"My daughter is _not_ a burden! And she is _not _going to be a part of this bargain! What would you even want her for anyway?!"

"I trust by now that you understand my obsession with youth and beauty."

"Well obviously." He grunted. "What _else _would you use black jellyfish for?"

"And as you can tell," She gestured toward her own face. "The effects don't last long. To make true use of their power, you need another in the equation; a true beauty, an innocent one. And your daughter is very beautiful, no? She definitely takes after your wife. Your son too, though they both have your eyes."

"How the hell do you know anything about what my family looks like?!"

She laughed. "You underestimate my power, my dear mershark." Her two eels swam gracefully down into her lap and she petted them. "My lovelies do their job."

The mershark sprang up from his seat and with a loud growl. "Forget it! I'm not signing this, and don't expect me to ever come back. Good luck getting black jellyfish on your own." He turned and swam towards the cave to get out, but he felt something tight against him that made him stop. He looked at his waist and saw one of her tentacles wrapped firmly around it. He should have known escaping wouldn't be this easy.

"Not so fast." She pulled him toward her and her expression turned dark. "I'm not letting you leave until you sign this contract."

"Oh, fuck off!"

"Such the sailors' mouth. Did you pick that kind of language up from the humans?" The mershark glared at her in response. "Now, we can do this the easy way, where you sign willingly and I give you your legs and you can just hurry off to this _urgent_ business on the surface. Or we can do this the hard way, where I _make _you sign and you get nothing." Her grip on his waist tightened ever so slightly.

"You're mad if you think those threats will convince me. I'm not signing that damned scroll; I'd rather die than give you my daughter."

She cackled. "Well then, fortunately for me, all I need to make this contract binding is your blood."

His eyes widened as he stared into her now smirking face, and with one swift motion, he felt a stinging at his neck and made a strangled noise. She pulled him closer and made sure to get as much blood onto the scroll as possible; it quivered and glowed at the contact and she laughed again.

"Thank you for your business, it was a pleasure. Sorry to see you go so soon." She tucked the scroll away and released him from her grasp. He clutched his bleeding throat as he sank to the floor of the room. "Ugh, how bothersome. Lovelies! Please take him out of my site. I don't want him to die in my home."

The eels nodded. "Yes, Mistress." They slithered over and wrapped themselves around the bleeding mershark to carry him out. Once outside, they detached themselves from him and just let him sink slowly into the trench.

As soon as the eels disappeared, he kicked his tail as hard as he could manage in an attempt to reach the top of the trench. The loss of blood made him feel weak, but he had to at least try. He continued to kick aimlessly, keeping one hand pressed to his throat; though that barely helped at all. He felt himself grow weaker with every kick and he hadn't made it any higher up.

He felt woozy and everything was starting to blur and darken. With one last kick with the last bit of strength he had, he was able to see the ledge of the trench, but it was too far out of his reach. He started to sink again and everything felt colder…darker. He took a last breath as he sank into the abyss of the trench. "I'm sorry…Gou." And the darkness enveloped him.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Ah…um, Nagisa? Are-are you sure we should be sneaking away like this? _Again?_" Makoto stuttered as he swam as close to Nagisa as he possibly could. "I mean, isn't it your birthday today?"

"Yup! Which is exactly why we're out here; it's my birthday so that means I can do whatever I want!"

"Yeah, but to be sneaking out of—"

"Shhh shh!" Nagisa shoved a hand to Makoto's mouth. "Wait. I think I heard something." Nagisa swam quickly but quietly to a nearby boulder to take cover and motioned for Makoto to follow. Reluctantly, Makoto obliged and joined Nagisa behind the rock. Nagisa peeked out slightly and chuckled. "Ah, it was nothing. Just a merpilot fish."

"Oh, well that's good then." Makoto sighed in relief. "Wait…_merpilot fish_?! Don't they normally hang around mersharks?! That must mean there's one nearby!"

"Makoto, shush! What mershark in their right mind is going to attack a merorca?"

"Well they might see you first and—"

"Calm down, you silly. There aren't any mersharks around. Come on, follow me!" Nagisa took Makoto's hand and dragged him along as he swam at top speed, startling some stray fish in the process.

Makoto had been dealing with Nagisa's spontaneity since they were little, but he never did anything to stop it and rarely protested his friend's antics; and when he did, Nagisa never listened anyway. Which made it even harder for Makoto because he was supposed to protect him; it was kind of his _job_. It didn't take them long before Nagisa finally found and pointed out what he was looking for; an odd grouping of coral that was shaped like a bunch of stars. "Ah, Makoto! This is it! The coral that Chigusa told me about!"

"And you're actually going to _listen_ to her? Don't you remember what happened the last time we did that?"

"Of course I do! Wasn't it fun?!"

"I-I don't recall being chased by those angry swordfish being fun…"

"Well, this is gonna be better, trust me!" Nagisa took a firm hold of Makoto's hand and pulled him along once again.

Makoto really needed to stop letting Nagisa drag him into these situations, especially when Nagisa's idea of fun was sure to involve something scary and dangerous. They swam a ways before Makoto felt a shiver as the water seemed to get colder and darker, then suddenly Nagisa let out an awe-inspired gasp.

"Makoto, Makoto! Look!" Makoto froze in place at the site. Nagisa had dragged him to none other than Shipwreck Rock. _Shipwreck Rock_. The place where shady individuals liked to lurk about and do…well…do _things_ Makoto wasn't particularly comfortable with.

"N-Nagisa?! Why are we here?!"

"Chigusa told me it's the best place to get human artifacts and information about the surface. I'm sure I'll find some treasures to add to my collection!"

"We came here so you can go shopping for your collection?!"

"Well, for my birthday too. Aren't I allowed to go shopping for myself on my birthday?"

"Ah, well, I never said _that_, but…ah! Your birthday!" Makoto suddenly remembered. "Nagisa, we need to get out of here and head back home. Your dad planned that—"

"Huh, never have I saw a merorca and such a pretty little merman lurk near these parts." A gruff voice interrupted Makoto.

Makoto looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it belonged to an older merman with long graying hair, rotting teeth, and a scar over his right eye; the eye beneath the scar was completely white. Makoto assumed it was due to whatever had happened to have caused the scar, but he didn't want to think about it because he was sure to imagine the worst possible scenarios.

"What brings ya here anyhow?" He swam closer to the pair, too close for Makoto's comfort. "It can be dangerous for someone as pretty as you to be in a place like this."

"That's okay, I have Makoto to protect me!" Nagisa said in his normally bubbly voice, not affected whatsoever by the stranger.

The merman glanced over to Makoto with a look of disbelief before he started chortling; Makoto realized that he was trembling. "Ha! _This_ guy? He's a merorca, sure, but I ain't ever saw one as scared as this quiverin' fool next to ya."

"But you don't know Makoto! He can be brave when he needs to be!"

The merman laughed again and swam away. "Whatever ya say, kid!"

Makoto looked down, feeling ashamed of himself. He was a merorca and he was supposed to be able to protect Nagisa at all costs, but he was just so easily frightened by things.

Nagisa pouted as the stranger left. "Hmph, what a jerk. Let's go, Makoto!"

"Ah, um…but…there are probably even worse fish folk by the ship."

"We'll make it quick, I promise!" Nagisa's eyes grew wide in a silent plea.

Makoto sighed and gave in; he was never good at arguing with the blond. Nagisa lit up and they started toward the sunken ship. It had been oddly propped against the side of the rock wall and formed an unnatural cave that Makoto was sure would hold more dangerous fish folk once they ventured inside.

There were a bunch of patrons outside of the ship selling their wares, but Nagisa paid no interest in any of them and headed straight for the dark entrance of the 'cave'. Hesitantly, Makoto followed. He hated the dark, but he couldn't let Nagisa go in there alone; it wasn't safe.

Fortunately, the ship grew lighter the further they got inside due to the ceiling being illuminated by some strange glowing seaweed that _had _to be the work of some sort of magic. About ten more seconds of swimming and the sellers started appearing. Some praised the items they had for sale and some made snarky and inappropriate remarks; _most_ made the remarks, actually.

"Hey there, youngling. That's a nice-looking tail you've got."

"Prettiest I've seen 'round these parts. It's pink, but it has a nice yellow shimmer to it, don't you think?"

"Oooh, your skin looks so soft."

"You could make a lot of money off that body of yours, sweetheart."

"Who is this? Your bodyguard? He don't look very guard-like."

Nagisa ignored them all and just swam ahead, a smile still plastered to his face. Then someone approached abruptly and wrapped his arm around Nagisa's shoulders.

"Why don't you come back to my place, hm? I'll show you a good time."

"No, thank you."

"Pfft, no thank you, he says. Come on, just for a little while." The stranger slid his hand down Nagisa's side.

Nagisa started to look uncomfortable and out of instinct Makoto pushed the pervert off and pulled Nagisa close to him. He wasn't aware of his own expression, but he assumed it must have been intimidating because everyone suddenly backed off.

Nagisa giggled. "So serious, Makoto."

"He was being completely inappropriate and who knows what he would have done if I hadn't—"

"I told you so!" Nagisa interrupted in a sing-song way.

"Wait, what?"

"I told you that you could be brave when you needed to be. Just look at how everyone backed off just now."

"I…well, that's…that was—"

"You being brave, you silly. Now, let's keep going. I haven't seen anything I don't have in my collection already." Makoto felt his expression change and he remembered where they were. Nagisa took notice of this. "We'll only stop a few times, okay? Then we'll get out of here. I promise."

Makoto nodded sheepishly and they swam on. Thankfully, Nagisa kept to his word and they only stopped a few times and Nagisa ended up buying two items he did not have in his collection. One item was small and silver and looked like an odd smaller version of Nagisa's father's scepter. The other item was dark brown with a weird shape that was carved from wood.

"Do you know what they are?! What they do?!" Nagisa asked the vendor, completely in awe of the new items.

"I don't know nor care what they do, kid. I just sell them. Now buy something else or get outta my sight."

Makoto grasped Nagisa's arm defensively. "Can we go now, please?"

"Okay, Makoto." Makoto released Nagisa's arm and they started to swim back. Suddenly a flash of black and white zoomed by and a young merpilot fish with gray hair appeared in front of them.

"I know someone who can help you if you wanna know about human items!"

"Hey, you're the merpilot fish I saw before!" Nagisa pointed out.

The boy took a hold of Nagisa's hand and started to lead him somewhere. "His name is Rin and he knows everything about humans! It's been slow for a while, so I'm sure he'd love some business!"

"Ah, Nagisa! Hold on a second!" Makoto called and swam after the two before they went out of his site completely. "Excuse me, sir, but I'd appreciate if you didn't grab my friend so abruptly like that." He said sweetly, not wanting to cause any trouble.

"Oh, s-sorry about that!" The boy let go of Nagisa's hand and put his own behind his back nervously. "It's just that it's been so long since Rin had any real business, I got excited. My name's Ai, by the way!"

Makoto sighed in relief. Finally, someone around here who seemed relatively normal and didn't give off a menacing aura.

"I'm Nagisa and this is my friend Makoto!"

Ai jumped slightly in surprise at the introduction. "Nagisa?! As in _Prince_ Nagisa?!"

Nagisa chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yup, that's me." Makoto knew Nagisa didn't really like being recognized as the Prince when he went out to public places, but it was kind of difficult to _not_ be when his name was so well-known amongst the sea-dwellers of their kingdom.

"I—wow! It's an honor to meet you, your highness! Ah, and I…I pulled you around so forcefully before, I'm so sorry!" Ai quickly bent over with a bow.

"Ah, please. No need for any of that formality." Nagisa motioned for Ai to straighten up. "And please, just call me Nagisa. I don't really like those fancy titles."

"Ah, of course, N-Nagisa. So, did you still want to see Rin?"

"Can he really tell me about the items I bought?"

"Of course he can! As I said before, he knows everything about humans!"

Nagisa looked over to Makoto. "Please, Makoto? Can we go? I know I promised we'd head back after I bought something, but when will I ever get the opportunity to find such valuable information?!"

They had already come this far, and Ai seemed like a nice boy, so he smiled softly and nodded. "Okay, Nagisa."

"Thank you, Makoto!" Nagisa pulled him into a hug and then they followed Ai into an upper deck of the boat where this so-called-Rin lived.

Ai stopped them right in front of a doorway covered only by a cloth that loosely hung over the frame; there was an old, worn out sign that read 'Matsuoka' on the right side of the door.

"Wait here, it's been a while since we've had anyone over, so I should probably tell him you're here first before I let you in." Nagisa and Makoto nodded as Ai pulled the cloth back slightly and swam through. Nagisa swam closer to the door, pulling Makoto with him, and tried to peak in. Makoto wasn't sure what view Nagisa was getting, but he couldn't get a clear look at this Rin other than a mop of burgundy hair as he lay on a bed with his back turned, but even that was quickly covered by Ai's form.

"Rin, are you sleeping again?" Rin grunted and threw something at Ai, who easily dodged. "You need to stop doing that while I'm gone or our stuff is going to get stolen."

"Tch, like any of them have the guts to steal from me whether I'm asleep or not. Now let me be."

"Rin, you have to get up. I have some customers for you!"

Rin groaned. "Damnit, Ai. What did I tell you about…wait. Customers? Seriously?"

"Yup!"

"Heh, good work, Ai. Let them in!"

"Of course!" Ai swam back to the door and pulled back the cloth. "You can come in now!" Nagisa didn't hesitate and swam quickly into the room, dragging Makoto behind him; but he stopped abruptly once they were through the door completely. Makoto held back a gasp when he took a look at Rin.

"You…you're a mershark?!" Makoto stuttered out, trying not to sound completely horrified. He'd never been so close to a mershark before and he wasn't sure what he should do.

"Of course he is! What kind of fish folk do you think a merpilot fish normally hangs around?" Ai said innocently with a small laugh.

"Ai, what the hell?! You never told me one of them was a merorca. Get him out of here!"

"Ah, but Rin, I don't really think he's the aggressive type!"

"I don't care what you think he is or isn't! His kind is not allowed in my house!"

"Um…sorry to intrude, Mr. Rin." Nagisa interrupted curtly. "But Makoto's my personal bodyguard and friend. He's not allowed to leave me in here by myself."

Rin cocked a brow at Nagisa. "A bodyguard? Ha! What kind of young merman needs a bodyguard? What are you, the Prince?"

Nagisa puffed his cheeks out and crossed his arms. "Yes. I _am_ actually. And I have a lot of money I could give you for your business, but not if you give me that kind of attitude."

Makoto blinked a few times. "Nagisa…" Nagisa never threw his status around willy-nilly like that; so he figured Rin must have really pissed him off. It made Makoto laugh, but he stifled it with his hand in case he angered the mershark anymore.

Rin was dumbfounded and looked to Ai for some confirmation. "Ah, it's true. He's the Prince all right."

Rin looked away and cursed under his breath. "Tch. Fine. But you pull anything, merorca, and I swear you'll regret it."

Makoto raised his hands in front of him defensively. "I won't. I'm not here to cause any trouble."

"Good then." He back flipped lazily into a chair that sat next to a table and motioned for the two of them to sit. "Now, what have you got for me, _your highness_?"

Nagisa smiled and pulled the items out of his bag and placed them on the table. "Could you tell me about these? What are they called? What do humans use them for?"

Rin leaned over the table and picked up the silver item. "This is a fork. One of the many utensils humans use to eat their meals with. They also use things called spoons, knives, chopsticks…depending on what region they come from."

"Whoa." Nagisa's eyes brightened. "I think I might have some spoons and knives in my collection. Do they look similar to this?"

"Well, normally they're made from silver or something like this, but there are also wooden and plastic ones as well."

"So cool! I'll have to try it out on my meals sometime, huh, Makoto?!"

Rin made a noise in his throat. "Make sure you sterilize it first. That's just…disgusting."

"Mhmm. Okay, how about this one?"

Rin took the other item in his hands and examined it carefully; his brows furrowed in concentration. "Ah, that's right. This is a pipe. Humans put a plant called tobacco in here," he pointed to the hole at the larger end of it. "And then they light it with fire and puff on the other end and smoke it."

"With fire?! How exciting!"

"Eh, not really..."

"But fire is so cool! I've got a few paintings of it in my collection and I've always wanted to see how it works in real life!"

"Just how big is this collection of yours anyways?"

"I have an entire grotto! I've been collecting human artifacts for a few years now. They've always fascinated me!"

"And you chose to come all the way to Shipwreck Rock to buy some and find out about them? Don't you have, I don't know, _teachers_ or _nannies_ or whatever who could tell you about this stuff?"

"Ah, well…my dad doesn't really like humans, so…he'd never allow that." Nagisa laughed. "He'd probably kill me if he knew I was here." Rin furrowed his brows at the blond. "But I don't care, it's my birthday and I can do whatever I want today!"

"Oh, that's right!" Ai squeaked. "Happy Birthday, your hi…ah, I mean, Nagisa. I heard about the celebration at the palace today in your honor. I've never been to a party like that before, but it must have been wonderful!"

"Ah, actually. The party's tomorrow. Dad wanted it to be held on a more convenient day for royals from other parts of the sea and other important fish folk to attend. Today was only supposed to be…dinner with…oh…oh no. I…I completely forgot!" Nagisa scrambled to collect his items from the table and Rin's hands and shoved them back into his bag. "Oh my god, Dad's gonna_ kill_ me! Why didn't you remember for me, Makoto?!"

"I _did_, Nagisa! But you never listen to me…"

"Ack, never mind that! How much do I owe you, Rin?" Nagisa reached into his bag.

"Oh, just a few—" Nagisa threw a small sack of gold coins at Rin. "O-oi! This is…" he opened the bag. "…way too much! I didn't even give you that much information!"

"Just consider it a payment for future visits! I'll definitely be coming back…if my dad doesn't skin me alive first, that is." He laughed awkwardly. "It was nice meeting you two! Come on, Makoto. We need to go!" Makoto nodded and followed Nagisa out of the room and they both swam so quickly away from the place that Makoto didn't have time to be scared of anyone that may have given them looks as they zoomed past.

As relieved as Makoto was to finally be leaving this place and heading to safer, warmer waters, he still felt awful for Nagisa. He even felt kind of guilty that he momentarily forgot about Nagisa's important dinner because he was too caught up in being afraid.

* * *

The swim home was surprisingly a short one and Nagisa shamefully looked away from the menacing gaze of the guards who watched over the front entrance to the palace. Normally Nagisa snuck out of this hidden passageway from his room and avoided the guards, but what was the point in that right now? He knew he was already in enough trouble.

He swam to his dad's throne room and saw his sisters waiting outside the door. _Great_. Just what he needed.

"Ha! Look who finally decided to show up."

"You are in _so_ much trouble."

"Dad's gonna kick you out, you know?!"

"Kn-knock it off, you three!" Makoto spoke up. "It's…it's _my_ fault, okay?"

"Makoto. Don't. You don't need to protect me." He swam past his sisters, sticking his tongue out at them as he did so, and knocked on the giant doors to the throne room.

"You may enter." Came a gruff voice, and Nagisa could already hear the disappointment in his father's tone. He swallowed loudly and opened the doors.

"H-hey, Dad…"

"Nagisa."

"Um…" He looked to the ground. "I know throwing 'sorry' out there probably won't be enough, but—"

"Oh, you think so?"

Nagisa looked back up at his father for a moment before looking away in shame. "I really _am_ sorry, Dad. I just…I just forgot, I—"

"How do you forget such an important dinner being held _on your birthday_? Don't you care about the royal family that had to swim hundreds of miles just to see you?!"

"It's not that I don't care, Dad, I just—"

"This dinner has been planned for months! Meeting with this family was of crucial importance for the bond between our two Kingdoms. Do you have any idea how disrespectful it was to not show up to that?"

"Dad, please just hear me out—"

"I should just cancel your birthday party right now! It'd be a good punishment, don't you think?"

"D-dad!"

"But I won't cancel it. You know why? Because now that's the only other time you can meet properly with this family before they have to leave. Not to mention how many other important people are coming."

"Well, I'll still get to meet them at the party, won't I?! Everything's going to be fine, right?!"

"Nagisa…" He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We needed a formal dinner with them first because you'll be too busy with everyone else to meet them properly at the party! I just…I don't know what I'm going to do with you, young man."

Nagisa lowered his head. "I'm sorry…"

"Tell me, Nagisa. What was oh so important that you forgot and skipped this dinner, hm?"

Nagisa's breath caught in his throat and he cleared it awkwardly. "Ah, um, well…I, uh…" He tensed up as he talked, but slumped his shoulders one he made eye contact with his father; admitting defeat. He sighed, took his bag off his shoulder, and held it out to him.

Confused, his father took the bag and looked into it. "Nagisa. How many times have I told you…"

"I know…"

"Humans are dangerous! You didn't go to the surface to get these, did you?!"

"No, no! I…I got them from…Shipwreck Rock…"

"You went to Shipwreck Rock?! That's even _worse_, Nagisa! I didn't know you even knew where that _was_!"

"I know…"

"You could have gotten hurt!"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry!"

"You are to never go there again and you are to go to your room and stay there until the party tomorrow!"

"Yes, sir." He bowed slightly and opened the doors to leave. His sisters, who were obviously listening through the door, all jolted back once it had opened.

"Hmph, you only got off so easy because it's your birthday!"

"Yeah, if it wasn't for these royals attending your stupid party, you would have gotten in _so _much more trouble!"

Nagisa was used to his sisters' snappy attitudes so he easily ignored them and swam straight over to Makoto. "Looks like I'm banished to my room until the party tomorrow, heh." Nagisa rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, it could have been worse. I'll take your bag to the grotto, okay?"

"Ah, well…Dad kind of took that from me."

"Oh. That's unfortunate. Can you get it back?"

"I don't know. I'll try _after_ the party. I don't wanna make him anymore angry than he already is."

"Good idea. Um, I should probably head home; I need to watch Ran and Ren tonight."

"Okay. See you at the party, Makoto!" Nagisa waved Makoto off and turned around to come face to face with his sisters.

"Well, you heard Dad. Stop dawdling and hurry up to your room now. Shoo!"

"I'm going already, sheesh." He hurried to his room, sank into his bed, and pouted. "Uugh, I'm such an idiot. How did I forget about the stupid dinner?!" He rolled over onto his side before getting up and looking out the window. He hated being confined to his room when there was an entire ocean to explore. He looked to his door and then again out of the window and smirked. It was just dark enough that no one would see him. And it's not like his father would come check in on him, he never did.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It had been easy enough to retrieve his bag from his dad's throne room the night before after he snuck out of his own bedroom; he was in and out in two minutes flat without any problems. Even though he said he wouldn't get it until _after _the party, Nagisa just got the sudden urge once he made it through the secret passage way from his room.

He carefully placed his new items with the rest of the collection after easily sneaking out again that morning and stuffed a few items into his bag. He had wanted to know about these items for a long time now and he _finally _had someone who could tell him about them.

He made sure he wasn't being followed as he swam out from his grotto and took off in a flash once he was sure the coast was clear. He wouldn't be gone for long, and he _definitely _wouldn't forget this time. He was disobeying his father again, sure, but what he didn't know wouldn't kill him; and it wasn't like Nagisa ever got checked in on whenever he was banished to his room as a punishment anyway.

He found the star-shaped coral in no time and hummed a tune as he glided quickly through the water. Once he arrived at Shipwreck Rock, Nagisa noticed that there seemed to be less patrons selling outside the sunken ship than there had been yesterday. He wondered if it had anything to do with his party later that evening because he always heard about people sneaking out items from the royal parties to sell. He swam past the few patrons with ease and was glad when no one bothered him this time.

He made his way up to the next deck, found the door with the familiar cloth hanging over it, and knocked enthusiastically on the frame. It was silent for a few minutes and he wondered if his knock was even heard, so he knocked again, but a little louder this time.

"Yes, I heard you the first time! Just be patient, I'll be there in a minute." Nagisa rolled his eyes playfully at the mershark's tone and started to hum again before the cloth was finally thrown back. "You again? Already? I wasn't expecting you back so soon with how frantically you left yesterday."

"Yes, I just wanted to make sure I got the chance to come back here again before my dad gets smart and decides to finally guard my room when I get into trouble."

"So you're not supposed to be here, I'm guessing?"

"Exactly!"

Rin groaned. "Well, if the King catches you here, you'd better take full responsibility. No way in hell am I getting in trouble for you."

"Wouldn't dream of it!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You brought items to be named, right?"

"Yes, all in here!" Nagisa patted the bag that was flung over his shoulder.

"Okay, come in then, I guess." Nagisa didn't hesitate and swam in happily, Rin looked around outside before throwing the cloth back down over the doorway. "I see you didn't bring that merorca with you this time."

"Well, he seemed to really bother you before. So I thought it'd be better I didn't bring him."

"Good call. Sit and wait here for a second." Nagisa did so and Rin disappeared through another doorway, which was also covered by a cloth. A few moments of silence passed before Ai entered the room.

"Ah, Prince Nagisa! It's good to see you again!"

Nagisa smiled. "Oh, hello, Ai! Nice to see you too!"

Ai took a seat next to Nagisa. "Is Rin being nice?"

"I'd say he's at least _trying_ to be. He seems a lot more at ease without Makoto here, though."

"Ah, yeah. That makes sense that he would be."

"Say, Ai? What exactly does he have against merorcas anyway?"

Ai frowned slightly. "Oh. Well…his mother was murdered by a merorca a few years back. It was rather brutal, from what Rin told me…"

Nagisa felt a gasp elude him. "That's awful! I mean, I know merorcas can be pretty aggressive, that's why many of them are part of my dad's royal guard, but I never heard of anything so harsh before. Makoto really_ is_ the nicest you'll ever meet, though! He'd never hurt anyone unless he absolutely had to."

"I'm sure he is, from what I saw when I met him yesterday. Rin's just stubborn, is all."

"Yeah, I'm sure he'll come around sooner or later."

Ai nodded and looked to the ground. It was silent for a few moments and he looked as though he was deciding on whether or not to say anything more. "It wasn't just his mom, though; or at least so Rin thinks."

"What do you mean?"

"When Rin was seven, his dad left home and never came back. He thinks that the same merorca who killed his mom got to him."

"Why would he think that?"

"To be honest, I think it's just a way for him to accept that his dad just never came home. It could have been from any number of things."

"How sad…losing both of your parents like that. Did he have any other family?"

"Yeah, a younger sister our age."

Nagisa brightened up a bit. "Oh? Does she live here with you guys? I'd love to meet her."

"Well, she _did_, but she…" Ai looked to the ground. "…went missing a few months ago."

Nagisa's mood dwindled again and he looked absolutely devastated. "So he's lost _everyone_?! That's just terrible!" Nagisa threw his hands up dramatically before flopping them back down with a smack against the chair. "Ah, well, I suppose he does have you, though." Nagisa smiled reassuringly.

"Kind of a pathetic replacement for a family, if you ask me…"

"Aww, don't say that, Ai! I'm sure Rin is really happy he has you! At least he's not completely alone."

"I guess." Ai shrugged. "I could never live up to his sister, though. She was really fun and such a sweetheart. She was really pretty too! She looks a lot like Rin, with the same eye color and a similar hair color; but she kept hers really long and liked to tie it back with these little blue sea shells."

"She sounds wonderful, Ai."

"Ahem." The two boys jumped at the sudden sound of Rin's voice. How long had he been there?

Ai stuttered. "Ah, s-sorry, Rin! I-I hope I wasn't—"

"It's fine. Just...don't mention it again." Ai nodded apologetically. Rin sat down and looked to Nagisa. "So, what have you got for me?"

"Ah, right!" Nagisa reached into his bag and set its contents on the table. Rin examined them one by one, not taking long at all to identify them and give a small explanation of their functions. Nagisa learned he had a pair of glasses, which were used to help humans enhance their vision, and a butterfly broach, which was some sort of jewelry humans pinned to their clothes; he had heard of butterflies before, and he wanted to see them for himself one day. After that, he only had one item left to be identified and this one was what Nagisa was looking forward to learning about the most.

Rin squinted his eyes at the shining object in heavy concentration. "I think this is a…what do you call it? A locker?"

"A locket?" Ai chimed in.

"Ah! A locket! That's right!"

"Ooh, what's it for?" Nagisa asked wide-eyed.

"It's another piece of jewelry; a necklace." Rin fiddled with it and looked as though he was trying to open it like a clam. "It's supposed to be able to open here and there's usually something very precious to the owner inside."

"Ooh, like what?!" Nagisa inquired, taking the locket from Rin and giving a go at opening it himself.

"Normally things like photographs; sometimes even secret messages."

Nagisa dug his nails into the thing to pry it open, but to no avail. It was hopelessly stuck. "Aww, I wish I could see inside. It's shut pretty tight."

"I suppose that _is_ the point." Rin shrugged. "Is that all you have for me?"

"Ah, yes; for today. I'll definitely come back soon!" Nagisa started to pack up his bag.

"Make sure you don't get into any more trouble." Ai mused, smiling simply.

"I'll try! Thank you again!" He waved and swam quickly out of the room and escaped from the ship as fast as he could. He had to make sure he _wasn't_ going to be late.

As always, Nagisa avoided the guards with practiced precision; being around them so much made it easier to predict how they moved. Once he slipped past them, he smirked and hurried to the hidden passage that led to his room. He rounded the corner quickly, but came to an abrupt halt when he ran into something; or _someone_, rather. Nagisa shook his head out from the impact and looked up, noticing his youngest sister glaring at him.

"Uh-ah! S-sis! Um, fancy seeing you here, heh heh!"

"Nagisa…what-what are you doing out of your room?! And with _that_ bag?! Father specifically said that you were to—"

"I know, I know. I just needed to do something really quick!"

"Oh, you are in _so_ much trouble!" A smug look formed on her face and she started back where Nagisa came from. "Oh, Hyosuke! Hyosuke could you—" Nagisa covered her mouth and dragged her back into a hiding place.

"Shhhh! Don't call Hyo over here! If he sees me he'll take me straight to Dad and I'll be in for it big time!"

She scoffed. "That's the point, you idiot. Now let me go, I have business with Hyo, if you don't mind."

"Ah, please! Don't! I'll do anything, please!"

"_Anything_?" She sneered. "Okay then. Get Makoto to dance with me at the party tonight, then you've got a deal."

"Deal!"

"But it has to be a slow dance! And for two entire songs! _And_ he has to at least _look_ like he's enjoying it!"

"Makoto will never agree to all _that_! You know you creep him out, right?!" Nagisa whined.

His sister took in a deep breath. "HYOSUKE!"

"Okay, okay, okay, deal!" He took her hand in a firm shake as a promise just before Hyo swam up and looked around worriedly.

"Y-your highness?"

His sister looked to Nagisa and whispered. "You're lucky Makoto's so hot." She swam out from the hiding place and put on her flirting smile. "Ah, sorry, Hyosuke. I was just wondering if you would be so kind and assist me back inside?"

Hyo blushed brilliantly before nodding. "Of-of course, your highness."

"Thank you!" He nodded again and led her around the corner and they were out of site. Nagisa waited a few more minutes before he sidled out of his hiding place and rushed back to his room. He sighed in relief once he made it back with no one else noticing and he made a motion to stash his bag underneath his bed, but saw there was someone laying on top of it.

"Ahhh!" Nagisa jolted back. "I was just out really quick to get out of my stuffy room for just a few short minutes, I swear! I was just—"

"Nagisa, calm down." Makoto sat up from his bed.

"Oh, Makoto, it's just you." He took a deep breath and put his hand to his chest. "Thank goodness."

"What were you doing out anyways? Your father just asked me to check up on you."

"He…did? He's never done _that _before."

"Well, looks like he's finally catching on."

"You-you didn't tell him I was gone did you?!"

"Of course not! I just got in a few minutes ago, so it's not like I had time anyways…"

"Makoto!"

"I'm kidding." He smiled. "What kind of friend would I be?" Nagisa laughed in relief, but then in guilt as he thought about his sister.

"Uh, um…now I feel bad, heh."

"What, why?"

"Well, I ran into my sister and she was gonna tell on me, and the only way she wouldn't is if I got you do dance with her at the party tonight."

"Oh. Well, that's not really too bad of a...wait. _Which_ sister?" Nagisa smiled awkwardly and tensed his shoulders up guiltily. "Nagisa!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know she's really weird about her crush on you and stuff, but I would have gotten in so much more trouble!"

"Then why'd you sneak out in the first place? Would it have killed you to stay put for one day?"

"Yes." Nagisa said seriously. "You know how jittery I get; I can't stay cramped in a room all day!" Makoto sighed and shook his head. "But I finally found out what these were!" Nagisa retrieved his bag and dumped out the contents; he held out the glasses to Makoto. "Remember these?! You're meant to wear them on your face and they're supposed to help enhance your vision! Your vision's a little blurry, right? Try them on!"

"Nagisa…I'm not sure they'd work under wat—"Nagisa shoved them on Makoto's face before he could further protest. "Nagisa! I...wow. They actually _work_!" Makoto laughed. "It's so amazing, Nagisa! I can actually see things that are farther away from me now!"

"They're yours, then. It'll be a gift to make up for tonight, okay? Though, I'm not sure how often you can wear them…them being a human thing and all."

"I'll explain to your father and won't tell him I got them from you. I'm sure he'll at least consider them since they help me see better."

"Yeah! All the better to see and protect me, my dear!" Nagisa giggled to himself, remembering a silly human tale.

"Well, I'd better head out or else your father will get suspicious."

Nagisa nodded. "Right." Makoto turned toward the door. "Ah, wait! The glasses. You'd better keep them here for now."

"Good idea." Makoto slipped off the glasses, looking slightly disappointed at the loss of the clear vision, and he handed them back Nagisa. "See you tonight!"

"See you!" Nagisa waved and Makoto left the room.

Nagisa's father showed no signs of knowing he had been out of his room when he came to collect him for the party a few hours later. He actually seemed to be in a pretty good mood, and for that Nagisa was relieved.

The ball room had been rigorously decorated and although Nagisa loved bright colors, they seemed to be a little bit _too_ much; but Nagisa was still more than thankful. He spotted Makoto and made his way to go say hello, but was pulled away by his father and brought up to the front to welcome and thank everyone for coming.

The festivities then officially started and Nagisa was greeted by the royals he was meant to have met the previous night. He felt extremely guilty when his father introduced him, but they didn't seem to be bothered by his absence at the dinner. The King was not present due to an illness and could not make the trip, so it was just the Queen and her daughter. The Queen, Kimiko, had a very serious face and she appeared very tired and stressed, but she spoke with kind words.

"You're a very handsome young merman, Nagisa."

"Ah, thank you." Nagisa said with his signature smile.

"He's also quite smart once he applies himself." Nagisa's dad slipped in with a grin. "He may be a bit of a trouble-maker at times, but he _can_ take his lessons very seriously."

"Oh, I'm sure once he settles down he'll stop with all the trouble-making nonsense. I know _I _did." The Queen laughed. "Anyway, Nagisa. I'd like you to meet my daughter Emi." She turned to usher the Princess out from where she was hiding behind her. She gave a shy smile and nervously tucked her hair behind her ear.

"N-nice to meet, Nagisa."

"Nice to meet you too, Emi." Nagisa said with a bright smile. "I apologize for not meeting with you and your mother for dinner last night."

"It-it's okay! I'm happy I could meet with you now."

The fast melody emanating through the ball room faded into a slower one and there was a short silence between Nagisa and Emi. Nagisa's dad elbowed him softly and angled his neck toward the dance floor as if to give him a hint. Nagisa let out a soft 'oh' that only he could hear and nodded before turning back to Emi.

"Would you like to dance?"

Emi's face turned as red as a crab and she twirled her finger through her hair before nodding and taking Nagisa's hand. Nagisa wasn't the best dancer, but he could remember the few lessons he had been given as a child. Emi didn't seem to mind, though, since she seemed too nervous and looked everywhere but at Nagisa's face.

As he twirled her, Nagisa couldn't help but wonder how dancing was like for humans. Was it harder to do without having water to float around in? And what did they even do with their legs? Nagisa laughed to himself thinking about how ridiculous it must look. Oh, how he wished he could witness it or even _try it_ one day. He sighed and shook his head; _but that's impossible, Nagisa._

A few more spins and Nagisa noticed other couples had started dancing as well and he spotted his sister and Makoto awkwardly thrashing about; his sister was obviously trying to lead. Makoto caught Nagisa's eyes and shot a rare glare in his direction that said he was going to get his revenge; Nagisa just grinned idly in response.

The song faded into another quick one, and the fish folk responded accordingly by parting from their companions and moving their bodies faster to the beat; Nagisa and Emi parted as well.

"T-thank you for the dance, Nagisa! I'll be looking forward to get to know you better!" She bowed awkwardly and swam away as fast as her fin could carry her before Nagisa could reply. He shrugged it off and looked to his father who gave a nod of approval, indicating that he was free to wonder around, dance, eat, do anything his heart desired; it _was_ his party after all.

After gorging on some food at the buffet table, Nagisa ran into Makoto who was out of breath from trying to avoid further contact with Nagisa's sister.

"How come you never told me you promised her _two_ dances?"

"Ah, I must have forgotten to mention it." Nagisa rubbed the back of his neck and Makoto groaned at him. "Sorry, sorry!"

"Well, I'm just glad it's over with. But you owe me more than those glassy things."

Nagisa laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right. Mackerel?" Nagisa offered some of the fish to the merorca.

"Sure. It's been a while since I've had mackerel, actually." Makoto took it and began eating. "Who was that girl you were dancing with earlier?"

"Oh, Emi? She's the princess from the northern kingdom, part of the royal family I was supposed to meet for dinner last night."

"Ah. She was a pretty little thing, huh?"

"Oh, yeah; I suppose she was. I didn't really think about it." Nagisa shrugged. "I'm not really interested in girls. I just want to explore and learn more about humans!"

The rest of the evening had gone by incredibly slow and it hadn't felt much like previous birthday parties to Nagisa. It seemed duller, more grown up. But Nagisa was 16 now; he was of marrying age, so he supposed that was part of growing up. Not that Nagisa really ever had a problem with growing up or anything, the years just zoomed by so fast.

Nagisa thanked everyone once again for coming and said his goodbyes and goodnights as everyone filed out of the ball room. Nagisa sank into the nearest chair, feeling tired, though he couldn't understand why since he didn't really do much at the party.

He looked over to the door and spotted his dad talking with Queen Kimiko, who seemed to be in a much more cheerful mood than earlier as she was laughing and smiling quite vibrantly. She looked down and said something to Emi, who was twirling her hair shyly and smiling as she had before. She gave Nagisa a quick glance and then nodded to her mother.

Kimiko looked even more delighted and said something to Nagisa's dad, who nodded in response and kissed her hand before she left with Emi in tow. His dad swam over to Nagisa, and he was glad to see he was still in a very good mood.

"Okay, Nagisa, you're going to be starting new lessons tomorrow."

"New lessons? For what?"

"For running a kingdom, of course! You are 16 after all."

"I have three older sisters, though. And I'm sure each of them will want to get married and have kids eventually, that's all they ever talk about. I'd probably die before I ever got the chance to—"

"O-one could never be too safe!" Nagisa furrowed his brows at his dad's odd tone. "It's all still very good information to know, Nagisa. It's a Prince's duty to his kingdom whether he reigns or not. The lessons won't last long if you pay attention and grasp everything quick enough."

Nagisa sighed. _Might as well get it over with_. "Okay, okay."

"Good. Miho will come to collect you after breakfast tomorrow. So don't be late."

"Yes, sir!" Nagisa said in salute.

"Now go get some sleep, you have a busy few weeks ahead of you." Nagisa nodded, got up from the chair, and gave his dad a quick hug.

"Night, Dad."

"Goodnight, Nagisa."

Nagisa swam off to his room quickly and stared at the ceiling once he had gotten comfortable on his bed. "A few weeks, huh?" He sighed and pouted. He would barely have any time to bring more items to Rin if he was busy all day with lessons. He'd have to figure _something_ out. He wasn't going to let his money go to waste.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It took a lot longer than Nagisa anticipated, but he didn't take into consideration that the route he took earlier would look so much different in the dark. After wasting fifteen minutes being lost, Nagisa finally found the star-shaped coral and he knew the rest of the way from there.

Nagisa had come to the conclusion the night before that he would wake up early enough so he'd have the time to visit Rin before he was expected to be at breakfast. So, he decided to leave before dawn. He gathered a few things from his collection to ask about, but this time he mainly wanted to ask questions about things he could _not _collect. Like the dancing thing Nagisa wondered about at the party.

He reached Shipwreck Rock and it was, not surprisingly, far creepier in the dark hours of the morning; though most of the patrons doing their selling were gone or asleep by their stands with everything packed away for the night previous. That didn't make Nagisa feel any safer, however, as he swam towards the entrance to the ship.

He kind of wished he brought Makoto along, but he figured that'd be a bad idea with Rin's stubbornness. Luckily, no one bothered Nagisa or even took notice of him as he quietly swam by and headed to the upper deck where Rin lived.

He knocked softly on the frame of the door and heard a really loud grunt and scuffle before Rin finally answered, looking very sleepy.

"Oh, well isn't it _his highness_ back to grace my humble home with his presence." Rin grumbled sarcastically.

"Hey, what's with the tone? I gave you money in advance, didn't I?"

"Fucking hell, do you have any idea what time it is?! I don't care who you are, you can't just come knocking on people's doors this early in the morning."

"Ah, I know. Sorry about that. I'm just gonna be busy with these new lessons for a few weeks and the early morning is the only time I'll get to come. I want to get my money's worth, at least!"

Rin groaned and slid his hand down his face in annoyance. "Fine, since you _did_ pay me a lot, I guess it's the least I can do. Just try to give me some warning next time, will you?"

Nagisa nodded enthusiastically and followed Rin as he let him in.

"Rin? What's going on?" Ai mumbled sleepily as he sat up on the bed and rubbed his eye.

"Just servicing the dear Prince here again. Go back to sleep." Ai nodded, fell back onto the bed, and was asleep instantly.

Rin motioned for Nagisa to sit at the table. "So, what do you want to know now?"

Nagisa dumped out the few items he had in his bag and Rin identified them easily as a bottle of cologne, a broken tea pot, and a bag of marbles. Nagisa _insisted_ that Rin teach him how to play the game of marbles, but he said it'd be difficult while under the water. Nagisa just pouted, and opted on asking him a few questions instead.

He asked about dancing and Rin scoffed loudly before laughing at him. "What do you want to know about _that _for? We have dancing down here too, y'know."

"I know that! I mean, it must be extremely different than how we do it here. They have legs to worry about and I can imagine it'd be a lot more difficult to do out of the water."

"Well, you guessed it." Rin said a-matter-of-factly. "Humans flail around and fall on their asses a lot when they try to dance. It's not something everyone can do well, and a _lot_ of practice is needed. But I suppose when it's done right, it might look kinda nice."

Nagisa sighed contentedly and wished he could see it. That'd be one of the first things he would want to do if he ever got the chance to be a human; that and eat. He could just eat and watch a dance and maybe even try it out himself.

After Nagisa had no more questions and realized he'd better get going, he bid Rin goodbye and that he'd be back soon; much to Rin's chagrin. He made it to breakfast only a few minutes late after returning his bag to the grotto, but his father did not question him nor did he even seem to be the least bit suspicious that Nagisa had snuck out.

Miho arrived right on time as expected and took Nagisa to the study to begin their lessons. Miho was strict but kind and she always spouted out famous quotes to try and make her lessons more relatable to real life, even though they never made any sense to what she was teaching or the given situation at hand. Nagisa always liked that about her, though, even when he was a kid; it made her lessons a lot less boring at least.

But even those silly quotes wouldn't help that now, because this was the most boring thing Nagisa ever had to sit through. She was lecturing about all the formalities of running a kingdom and the tasks Nagisa would have to perform if he were to take the throne.

"I know you have three older sisters and it's likely only the eldest will ever sit on the throne if she has heirs to take her place once she is gone, but you _should_ know this. It's valuable information—"

"Whether or not I actually reign. I _know_." Nagisa grumbled as he laid his head down on his folded arms that rested on the rock in front of him. "I get it, okay. So, please continue." _So I can get out of here as soon as possible._

"Of course. And remember, 'Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.'"

Nagisa laughed under his breath. _I wish I _could_ live as if I were to die tomorrow. But instead I'm stuck here dying of boredom._

The next few days went by painfully slow and Nagisa was finding it difficult to pay attention. But he had to, that way he would understand quicker and the lessons would finally come to an end. He had been given so many tasks to do _outside_ of the lessons that he grew extremely tired by the time night came and all he wanted to do was sleep as long as possible the next morning. Unfortunately, getting more sleep meant not waking up early enough to go visit Rin and Ai, which was horrible because he had so many more things he still wanted to ask about.

One morning, Nagisa forced himself to wake up early enough to go back to Shipwreck Rock, and he did so for the next few days. He found he'd rather learn about things like fireworks and ferris wheels than sleeping in anyways; and the visits always made his boring day of tasks and lecture that much more bearable. Rin, however, was actually feeling pestered by the early mornings with Nagisa; and he finally told him so one morning when Nagisa had decided to arrive an hour earlier than usual.

"Look, I know you paid me in advance and stuff but…seriously, kid, you are extremely annoying and I find that a lot harder to deal with so early in the morning." That should have hurt Nagisa, but it really didn't. He was used to being called annoying, so it didn't bother him anymore; at least not as much as it used to when he was younger. "If you really wanna learn more about stuff you don't have in your collection, then why not just…I donno…swim to the surface and find out stuff for yourself? Fishermen and sailors have a _lot_ of information you could get just from tagging behind their ships and listening."

"That sounds _wonderful_, Rin. But…how could I ever? I mean, my father would kill me then proceed to somehow banish my dead corpse to my room for eternity if he ever found out I went to the surface, even if I kept myself completely hidden from the humans."

"Well, you're already disobeying him by coming here, aren't you? What's the harm in going to the surface? He'd probably be equally as mad if he ever found out about either of them, wouldn't he? Besides, getting information first hand from the source is a lot better than getting it from me, right?"

Nagisa pondered Rin's words for a bit. It actually seemed doable, and Nagisa was dead either way, so why not aim for something bigger, more exciting? "You know what?" Nagisa dramatically slammed his fist on the table. "I think I will!"

Rin let out a breath of relief and got up from his chair to push Nagisa towards the door. "Good good!"

"I'll come visit again at a more convenient hour when I get the chance! Oh, and let Ai know as well! Tell him I said goodbye when he wakes up!"

"Yeah, yeah." Rin pushed him closer to the door.

"Oh, and keep the rest of the money. A gift from me!"

Rin stopped shoving and actually gave Nagisa a genuine smile. "Thanks."

"Of course! You're my friend after all, no matter how much you find me annoying, it's what friends do! You can't get rid of me that easily." Nagisa gave Rin a hug before rushing out of the room and eventually outside of the ship.

Nagisa left Shipwreck Rock and was about to head home when he realized he had only been there for about ten minutes, and he'd even arrived an hour earlier than usual. Nagisa looked at the open water above him, feeling himself shaking with excitement, and he decided he had enough time to go for it; he'd just look around for a short while to get used to it. He took a deep breath, kicked his tail as hard as he could, and zoomed upward.

"This is it, Nagisa. You're doing this, you're actually doing this! No turning back now!" He kept swimming, feeling his heartbeat speed up, and he was sure he was going to explode with anticipation. Just how far up _was_ the surface anyway?

And before he knew it, Nagisa had breached the surface. He flew a few feet out of the water due to swimming so fast, and it scared him a bit, but he laughed to himself once he crashed back into the water. He was shaking, his heart was racing, and he couldn't stop smiling; he did it!

He looked in all directions around him, not spotting any boats or humans nearby, which was a relief. He would have really freaked out if a human had seen him come shooting out of the water like that. It was still a little dark outside, and Nagisa was able to see some stars as he looked up to the sky. All he could think was 'beautiful' as he gazed at them, wishing to see how they looked when it was fully dark outside.

He laughed again and started swimming aimlessly and jumping in and out of the water. He swam deeper underwater a few times so he could get enough speed to fly out. He was having the time of his life.

After swimming and jumping a while, Nagisa spotted land not too far away, and he knew he had to investigate. As he drew closer he noticed there was a castle on the beach, much larger and more magnificent then the one he lived in, and he needed to get a closer look.

He was nearly to the shore when he found the perfect boulder to hide behind just in case. He stared up at the large brick walls in wonder. "This place is _huge_. I wonder how they get to the higher floors…"

Without warning, Nagisa heard a very loud and very strange noise in the direction of the castle followed by the voice of, who he assumed, was a human.

"No, Manami! Stay! Brother would get angry with me if I let you out today after your grooming last night. Yes, that's a good girl."

Nagisa rushed behind the boulder to hide and started to tremble; was he actually going to see a human up close? On his first day to the surface no less? He couldn't keep himself from grinning stupidly as he peered from behind the rock to have a look. A few short minutes, and there he was, a human emerging from what looked like a hidden pathway within a group of trees that _must_ have led to the castle.

As the human walked closer to the shore, Nagisa's eyes shined in amazement. He was _beautiful_. The most beautiful creature Nagisa had ever seen, and he was sure that wasn't just because he was fascinated by humans either. He was quite tall, had strong-muscled arms, the most interesting blue hair, and he even had a pair of glasses on!

"So they _do_ wear glasses." Nagisa whispered excitedly to himself. He couldn't wait to tell Makoto. The human then started performing some stretches and Nagisa _really_ got to see just how deliciously toned his arms were. "_Deliciously_?" He giggled quietly to himself. "Odd choice of word there, Nagisa."

During and right after the stretches, Nagisa noticed the human had been muttering something under his breath; and oh how he wished he could hear. The human then took a deep breath and started sprinting along the stretch of beach. Nagisa, too, took in a breath, and was in complete awe. He'd heard of running before, and it always sounded like a silly activity for humans to do, but the way this human did it left Nagisa staring with his mouth agape and his eyes sparkling.

He shook himself out of his daydream and decided to try and follow him by swimming discreetly along the shore. He was a fast swimmer, but it still took him a few minutes to catch up with the human; he managed to keep up with him once he _did _catch up, however.

He followed the human even as he turned around and ran back to where he started; and he continued running up and down the beach. Nagisa started to get out of breath after the third time around, and he wondered how this human could even have this much stamina. Swimming must take more energy than running...that had to be it.

Nagisa swam back to hide behind his boulder and only had to wait a few more minutes until the human stopped running, sat down on a rock, and started drinking from a container. He was muttering to himself again and looked at some sort of device that was wrapped around his wrist.

He looked pleased and got up after taking another drink. He set the container down and started to stretch again. Nagisa bit his lower lip as he watched him bend over to reach his feet with his hands; he really was beautiful. Nagisa never knew how aesthetically pleasing the human body could be, much more so than his tail, in his opinion.

After staring in awe for what seemed like forever, Nagisa noticed that the sun had already rose and he panicked because he needed to get to breakfast before his father came to look in his room and not find him there. Nagisa took one last glace at this beautiful, blue-haired human, and he dived back into the water and swam as quickly as possible to get back home.

Once he finally made it, he was a good ten to fifteen minutes late; and he had to deal with his father who had his arms crossed and wore a stern expression. "Sorry, Dad. I um…I over slept."

His dad narrowed his eyes before sighing and unfolding his arms. "Well, you _have_ been arriving on time every morning. So I suppose I can let you off this time. Just don't do it again, okay?"

"Of course!" Nagisa smiled and sank into a chair to down his breakfast really quick before Miho came to collect him for his lessons. He could not believe his luck; he was sure his dad would have suspected the worse.

Nagisa's mind kept drifting off during his lessons that day and he nearly hurt himself three separate times while daydreaming about his first time above the surface. He couldn't stop thinking about going back up there; he didn't even care if he saw any other humans as long as he got to see the same one with blue hair and glasses.

After losing sleep from anticipation, Nagisa woke up before sunrise the next morning and decided to swim to the surface again. It took him a few minutes once he breached, but he was able to recall the way he went to find that castle again and he waited impatiently behind his rock once he arrived.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long before he heard the sound of footsteps emerging from the tree-lined pathway. Nagisa took in a breath and released it only once his human was in view. He was just as lovely as the day previous and he looked ready to run again; and he did just that after his routine stretches. Nagisa couldn't help but quietly follow once again; he didn't want to lose sight of him.

On about the third time around, Nagisa started to feel tired and he splashed down a bit louder than he intended and he was able to catch a glimpse of the blue-haired boy suddenly skid to a halt across the sand and nearly fall over. On his swim back to the boulder, he heard the human mutter something that sounded like "Probably just some large fish thrashing about" before he composed himself and continued his run.

Nagisa laughed quietly to himself. Had his splash caused him to nearly fall over? Nagisa's smiled faded once he realized he had nearly been seen by a _human_. "Whoa, that was a close one." He gulped quietly to himself. He peered from behind the boulder and saw the human had rounded for another lap. Nagisa was too tired to join him, so he just continued to watch until the sun rose.

Not wanting to risk being late, Nagisa left earlier than he would have liked, but there was always tomorrow. Watching a human so close was so exhilarating that he definitely intended to come back every morning if he could.

Nagisa made it without arriving late this time, and thus he avoided a scolding from his father and made it through another breakfast with no suspicions from anyone.

And that's how it went over the course of the next few weeks. Nagisa would wake up early to take a trip to watch his human and return home just in time for lessons. Some may think it boring to just sit and watch a human do the same thing every day, but not Nagisa. He discovered something new every day while watching him.

Nagisa discovered that he indeed lived in the castle, and that he liked to mutter calculations under his breath as he rested in between runs or during his stretches. He would adjust his glasses far too many times, which Nagisa assumed was a nervous habit, and he would also sometimes stop completely to admire the sunrise and take in the summer air; this being a rare time Nagisa could see his normally serious face soften and the corners of his mouth turn up ever so slightly. His heart fluttered every time at that, though he couldn't quite understand why.

He was never bored because although those morning runs were normally routine and perfectly fit to a schedule, they weren't always exactly the same. Sometimes the human would bring a strange furry creature down to run with him; who Nagisa later found out was that 'Manami' he remembered hearing about on his first day there. Other times another human, who_ had_ to be of some sort of kin relation due to his resemblance in appearance, joined him and teased him about his apparent love for beauty and perfection. Nagisa only saw the other human a few times, but he never complained; he was more interested in glasses-boy anyways.

Nagisa, to his dad's disappointment, kept zoning off thinking about his surface visits during lessons, and thus they had to run longer than he wanted in the first place. But he didn't really care how long it took anymore, just as long as he got to see his human every morning.

One morning, however, he ran into Makoto while he was trying to sneak out. He was actually really happy to see him because it had been ages and he couldn't find the time between his secret trips to the surface and his lessons.

"I see you're wearing the glasses! Did you talk to my dad about them?"

"Yeah. He was unsure about them at first…he thought they were going to eat away my face or some other ridiculous thing like that." Makoto laughed. "But he allowed them, and it's been really nice. I never realized how blurry the things far away from me really were. So, thank you!"

"Of course! I'm glad they're working well for you. Oh! And speaking of glasses…" Nagisa lowered his voice to a whisper. "You'll never guess what I've seen over the past few weeks."

"Oh, did you happen to find more?! That'd be cool to see…hey, wait a minute! You haven't been exploring without me have you? You know how dangerous it is to—"

"No, no! Well…sort of. I haven't been _exploring_ exactly, more like observing."

"Observing what?"

Nagisa pulled Makoto closer and took a deep breath before grinning madly and running his mouth a million miles an hour. "Only the most beautiful creature I have ever seen before! He's amazing, Makoto! He wears glasses, red ones, and he won't stop adjusting them even if they don't need to be. And he's super serious, but he lightens up when he sees something beautiful, it makes me happy to see him smile, like all tingly inside. And he's so beautiful when he runs, it's amazing! You have to see it!"

Makoto put on a teasing smile. "Oho, he sounds fascinating, Nagisa. And what's with you? You never take interest in others often. Sounds to me like you have some sort of cru…wait. When he _runs_?"

"Of course! He's a human, silly!"

Makoto blinked. "A human. A _human_?!"

"Yup!"

"You went to the surface?! You've been watching a _human_?!"

"Shh, not so loud, Makoto! It's a secret, okay?"

"Nagisa, do you have any idea how dangerous this is? The surface…what if he saw you? What would you do then?"

"Well, I guess I'd just swim away? But he won't see me, I have a good hiding spot. And he hasn't seen me yet and it's been a few weeks, so I don't think I have anything to worry about."

Makoto sighed. "Nagisa…" He brought his palm up to his face. "If your dad finds out…"

"You're not gonna tell him, are you?!"

"Of course not! I just…if he ever _did_ find out, I'm really worried about what he'd do."

"Well, that's why I'm making sure he _won't_ find out. Ah, it's getting late, I need to get going before the sun rises!"

"Wait, go _where_?! You're not going back up there, are you?!"

"Of course. I do this every morning. See you later, Makoto!" Nagisa smiled nonchalantly and turned away from Makoto, but he was stopped abruptly when a hand grasped his arm. "M-Makoto?"

"I…I'm not gonna let you go." Nagisa's smile diminished. "At least…not without me. It's dangerous and I can't believe you've been going up there without me for so long!"

Nagisa eyes widened in surprise. "You're gonna come with me?! Oh, Makoto, I'm so excited!" Nagisa slipped his arm out of his hold and he took Makoto's arm instead. "Just wait till you see him! He's so amazing!"

The blond vigorously tugged Makoto along and, despite Makoto's protests of going too fast, sped toward the surface at an alarming pace.

"Nagisa wait! I'm not mentally prepared to be breaching the surfaaahhh!" Makoto clenched his eyes shut as they drew closer and braced himself for the impact.

Nagisa loved that the rush of surfacing never went away and he always felt so alive, he always felt like he was where he belonged. As he took in the air and gazed up at the fading stars, he heard Makoto's breathing start to get heavy. "Ah, Makoto it's okay, just take normal breaths. And open your eyes! Look at how beautiful it is up here."

Makoto's breathing steadied and he peeked with one eye slowly, opening the other not too long afterwards. It was silent between the two as they both took in the scene. "Wow, it's...it _is_ beautiful."

"Okay, no more dawdling, let's go!" Nagisa ushered for Makoto to follow and he obliged. They swam for a few more minutes before reaching the all too familiar castle. "Here, this is the boulder I hide behind. Perfect, right? It's close enough for me to be able to hear him talk, but far enough out that there's plenty of water to float in—ahh shh shh! There he is!"

"I wasn't saying any—"

Nagisa covered Makoto's mouth with his hand. "Shhhh! He'll hear you!"

The human emerged right on time just like always, and he was even more beautiful than the day before. Nagisa watched with glittering eyes as the blue-haired boy stretched and started his run. Since Makoto was with him, he decided to stay by the rock and not try to follow like he usually did.

Nagisa rested his chin in his hands. "See? Isn't he the most beautiful creature you've ever seen?"

"Do you watch him run every day?"

"Sure do!"

"Don't you ever get bored watching the same thing every day?"

Nagisa sighed contentedly. "Mmm, never."

Makoto took note of Nagisa's half-lidded gaze at the human and chuckled sweetly. "He _is_ rather interesting like you said, and it's not that he isn't beautiful, but it seems like your little crush has made you a bit biased."

Nagisa whipped his head around to look at Makoto as his face turned bright red. "I-I don't have a crush! He's just—fascinating is all! You know how interested I am in human stuff!"

Makoto smiled deviously. "Uh huh, sure. And I suppose you give all the human artifacts the same exact look, right?"

Nagisa's face grew hotter and he lowered it halfway into the water to try and hide his embarrassing expression._ Did_ he have a crush? He loved human things, sure, and he could have easily gone looking for sailors and fisherman to find out more information, but he didn't. He really felt drawn to this human and he didn't want to stop coming to watch him. What if he _did_ have a crush? How would he even do something about it? Has this kind of thing ever happened with a human and a merperson before? His mind started to wonder into various more unanswerable questions, but Makoto's voice snapped him back to reality.

"Hey, looks like he's stretching again. Oh, and it seems he's taken off the clothing covering his upper body."

"He _what_?!" Nagisa rushed to look around the boulder and sure enough the human was standing there with his torso completely exposed and he was panting. Nagisa felt himself blush again as he gazed at the bare chest and arm muscles before him; he felt his mouth go dry.

The human then bent over to reach for his water container and without thinking, Nagisa tried to lean out further to have a better look. He lingered for a moment before his hand suddenly slipped and he crashed into the water with a loud splash and a shout of surprise.

Before he could resurface, he felt Makoto's hand pull him back toward the boulder, his body was completely rigid.

"Makoto? You okay?"

"Shhhhh!" Makoto hushed Nagisa.

"Is someone there?!"

Nagisa froze as he heard the sound of the human's voice calling out. Had he heard Nagisa's shout? Nagisa slowly sidled along the boulder to take a quick look out and he saw that the boy was sitting in the sand and taking off his feet protectors. Once he did that, he started walking toward the water and stepped in, making his way toward the boulder.

Nagisa held in a gasp and pressed his back firmly to the rock and just floated there, unable to move. Makoto, however, was able to sink down and start to swim away; he motioned for Nagisa to follow, but Nagisa just _couldn't _move. He heard the boy getting closer and closer, and his heart leapt into his throat and he felt himself tremble. He was shaking so much, yet he could not move; and he wouldn't admit it to Makoto, but he kind of _wanted_ to be seen by the human, so his sudden loss of mobility didn't bother him at the moment.

Makoto looked worried and started to swim back to get Nagisa himself, but Nagisa shook his head at him, indicating to not worry and to just stay put. The splashing in the water was closer than ever and Nagisa saw a hand grip the boulder out of the corner of his eye. This was it. He just needed to look around the rock and that would be it. Nagisa took a deep breath held it before the sound of another human shouting from the beach took him by surprise.

"Rei! What the hell are you doing? If Haru knew you were out there trying to swim by yourself, he'd have a fit!"

Nagisa heard some more water thrashing noises and the hand on the boulder slipped away. "I'm not a child, Seijuuro! I know how to wade in shallow water. And I wasn't swimming! I just thought I heard something and decided to investigate."

"Still, you could have ran into an undertow and that would have taken you under in seconds. Now get out of there before that happens and I have to explain to Haru and your brother how you managed to drown in 4 feet of water."

"Tch, fine, fine. I'm getting out."

"Anyway, are you done with your run? Your brother wanted to talk to you before we all set out tonight."

"Yes, I'm finished. Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Will do."

Nagisa heard footsteps slowly fade away and he finally let out the breath he was holding the entire time. He took a few more breaths and noticed he was able to move. He looked around the boulder again to see his human putting his feet protectors and upper body clothing back on before he stood up to leave. He gazed out toward the direction of the boulder, sighed, and walked up back towards the castle.

Once he had gone, Nagisa leaned up against the boulder and smiled. So his name was _Rei_. He never thought he'd get to find out his name, and oh what a lovely name it was. It was girly, just like his and Makoto's. Nagisa sighed and unconsciously brought his hand to his chest; it almost seemed like…_fate_.

Makoto rushed over to Nagisa and snapped him out of his daze. He scolded him for nearly getting seen by a human and not fleeing like he should have, but Nagisa didn't really take it to heart; he knew Makoto was just worried about him. The sun had already rose and they exhausted themselves hurrying back home so Nagisa wouldn't get in trouble.

He ended up being only a few minutes late, but with Makoto with him, Nagisa just said he ran into him on the way down to breakfast and lost track of time. Despite Makoto's obvious guilty face and the fact that he was a terrible liar, Nagisa's dad bought it and asked Makoto to join them for breakfast.

Nagisa bid Makoto goodbye once he left for the day's lessons, but hell if Nagisa knew how he was going to concentrate at all. This human, Rei, had been within touching distance and he was almost _seen_ by him for crying out loud. That was something that most fishfolk would be terrified of, something his father would be furious about; but to Nagisa, it was something he kind of wished had happened.

Sure, he didn't know how Rei would even react to him; he could have been violent or scared for all Nagisa knew. He doesn't know this human at all, he doesn't know much about his personality other than the few weeks of observation, but something inside him kept telling him that wouldn't be the case. He felt like Rei would accept him, be intrigued by him even. It sounded stupid, he knew it did, but he couldn't help but think that.

After his lessons were over for the day, he decided to visit his grotto because he felt like he'd been neglecting it for weeks. He ran into Makoto again on the way and Makoto happily joined him since he hadn't been there in a while either. The two chatted idly about nothing in particular for a few hours until it started getting dark.

"We should be getting home." Makoto yawned. "It's getting late."

"I guess. It was nice talking, though! I've missed you!" He gave Makoto a squeeze. "Sometimes I wish you were in lessons with me so I could have some company and wouldn't have to suffer alone!"

Makoto giggled. "Now that's not very nice, Nagisa."

Nagisa smiled up at Makoto innocently before a rush of fish swam by them without warning, causing Makoto to jump back in surprise.

Nagisa cocked his head to the side. "Huh, how weird. That didn't look like normal behavior to me." He narrowed his eyes in the direction of the fish to try to and decipher their movements when he felt something hard smack into him. He got pushed off to the side as a few terrified merangel fish rushed passed him. "Ow, that hurt! What's the big idea?!"

"It's horrifying. There's been loud booming sounds coming from the surface back that way!" Another merangel fish passing by answered before disappearing with the others.

"Loud booming sounds?" Nagisa looked to Makoto but he shrugged. "From the surface, huh?" Nagisa wondered to himself and his eyes lit up. "Let's investigate!" Nagisa didn't hesitate and started swimming upward towards the surface.

"Wait, Nagisa! We should really be getting…" he sighed. "Oh nevermind. You won't listen anyway." Makoto took a deep breath and followed him.

Nagisa breached in no time and was greeted with a breathtaking site. There was a ship not too far from where he was and coming off of it were streams of whistling light suddenly exploding into beautiful colors in the air that illuminated the night sky. _Fireworks_. They had to be.

He heard Makoto breach next to him, but he didn't take his eyes off the ship. He had just learned about fireworks from Rin the other week and the thought of actually seeing them seemed so far away; yet here he was, watching them being set off from a ship.

He felt himself being drawn closer to the ship and before he knew it, he was swimming quickly toward it. He heard Makoto's shouting in the distance, but he didn't care; he needed to be closer. The ship didn't seem to be moving, so he caught up with it in no time.

Once he got close, he started to hear music and laugher, so he took a tight grip on the side of the ship and hoisted himself high enough to look through a porthole. Over fifty humans, who were most likely sailors, were spread all around the deck and having the grandest time. Some ate, some drank, and some even _danced_. They were _dancing_ and Nagisa needed to see, so he pressed himself as close to the porthole as he could possibly get.

Just as he got a good enough view, he saw that creature of Rei's sniff around the porthole and start to yelp loudly at him. Nagisa gasped and pushed away from the hole to hide.

"Nagisa! What are you doing?!"

"Shhh, Makoto. Don't want to be seen now do we?" Nagisa peered back into the hole to check if the coast was clear only to be met with a wet tongue on his cheek. The creature panted happily at him before he heard a semi-familiar voice call to her.

"Manami! Get away from there or you'll fall off the side, you silly dog!"

The fluffy 'dog' turned away from Nagisa and ran toward the voice. Nagisa looked carefully and noticed the voice belonged to that relative of Rei's. Nagisa's eyes widened. If his relative was here, then that must mean that_ he_…

"Nagisa! Please, let's go home. I don't like all these loud booming noises!"

Nagisa ignored Makoto and scanned the deck quickly, but thoroughly; and there he was. Sitting in a chair reading and taking no interest in the festivities. Nagisa's heart fluttered at the sight of him and thought about the chances of seeing him twice in one day and actually doing something that _wasn't_ running. Nagisa was convinced now. It was fate.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A sailor with a mug in his hand stumbled over to Rei. "Rei, why are you reading?! Come have a drink with us!"

He pushed his glasses up. "No thank you."

"Oh, come on! You can't just sit there when there's so much fun to be had!" he slurred.

"Not interested."

"Fine, suit yourself." He wobbled away to the human with the dog. "Jeez, your brother is such a bore."

"Heh, tell me about it." He laughed.

"So they _are_ related!" Nagisa uttered to himself.

"And here I never thought anyone could be as boring as ole Haruka here!" The drunk man clapped a dark-haired boy on the back, nearly causing him to tip over.

"Oi, that hurt." Haruka grumbled as he rubbed his shoulder.

"Ah, he speaks!" Rei's brother laughed and wrapped his arm around Haruka's shoulder. "First time all day; I almost thought you were gonna make it last through tomorrow this time!"

"Stop being so loud." Haruka shook the man's arm off and strode over to the other side of the boat and stared at the water.

"Why's he here anyway if he doesn't like being social?" another sailor questioned.

"Ah, you don't know?" Rei's brother looked around and then back to the sailors. "Rei can't swim. He's never been able to and not even the best swimmers in the kingdom could teach him how. It was really odd, y'know? Our family has lived close to the ocean for generations and it was always a tradition of sorts, for the kids to learn how to swim at an early age. Rei's probably the first one in the royal family line who can't swim."

Nagisa leaned in closer, grasping every word. So Rei was royalty too? Well, he should have figured as much with the castle he lived in, but it never crossed his mind. And he's the only one in his family that can't swim? That must be a horrible thing to have to deal with; almost like he didn't fit in. Nagisa looked down sadly. He knew _that_ feeling.

"He was very persistent, though." Rei's brother continued. "You wouldn't believe the amount of books he read. Can you imagine? A six-year-old reading piles upon piles of books! Books about the theory of swimming, swimming in sport, good diets for swimming, he even read up on swimming history. He found myths about some humans having been evolved from merpeople and such, ridiculous, I know, but he found comfort in them and thought that if humans once used to swim that it wouldn't be impossible even for him.

Unfortunately, it didn't go the way he had wanted it too. After all the reading and research, he still wasn't able to swim. I told him that maybe he just wasn't meant to swim and that we should stop trying. It wasn't a big deal, really. But he was so distressed that he took a row boat out in a fit of hysterics and tried to prove to himself that he could swim. He nearly drowned that day, and if it hadn't been for Haruka, he would have."

"Haruka saved him?"

"Yes. He was out swimming in a prohibited area, an area that belonged to our estate—that little shit." He laughed. "He saw Rei on the boat and really took no mind when he suddenly jumped from it. Haru always said he thought that behavior was normal since _he_ loved the water so much; why shouldn't other people just jump from row boats to swim? But then Rei never came back up and Haru acted on instinct and saved the poor boy.

We were so grateful for what Haru did, and we later came to find he was orphaned, so we took him in. He has been Rei's…well…protector, I suppose, ever since. He was rather lonely and only found comfort from swimming in the ocean, so he was thankful to have met Rei and they soon became great friends. Haru's not really one to make friends so easily, so he made sure he was with Rei every time he went on a boat in case he needed saving again."

"Brother, stop telling that story to people! It's not beautiful!" Rei growled from behind his book, covering up a blush.

"Oho, so is that why you run on the beach all the time?" the drunk sailor from before chimed in. "Since you like the ocean but can't swim so you run as close as you can get to it, ahaha! Sounds kinda like one of them awful love stories where you long for someone yet you can never be together!"

"That…that's not—" Rei sputtered.

"Oh, how hopeless! A tragedy it is!" He swooned lamely nearly spilling his drink all over himself.

"_Rei and the sea_

_It was destiny_

_But, oh, they can never be_!"

"Knock it off!" Rei cried out, but the sailor merely cleared his throat and continued.

"_Rei and the sea_

_ It was destiny_

_ But, oh, they can never be!_

_ What do you say_

_ Let's wait for the day_

_ When our precious Rei_

_ Can be with his mate_

_ Before it's too late_

_ For it is his fate!_"

Nagisa's heart skipped a beat for moment at the word, but his daze was broken once Rei had yelled again.

"I said stop it!"

"Oh, calm down. It was only a joke, yeesh."

Rei's brother stepped in and took the mug away from the man. "I think you may have had a little bit too much to drink, Goro."

"Hey, you're no fun! I said I was only joking! Get back here with that!" Goro followed Rei's brother as he ran away with his drink. Rei huffed and ran over to Nagisa's side of the ship to calm himself. Nagisa sunk close the wooden side of the ship's wall as much as he could and didn't move. He wouldn't have minded Rei seeing him, but he felt uneasy with all these humans seeing him as well.

"Nagisa, what—" Makoto started, but Nagisa shushed him and pointed up to the side of the deck where Rei was leaning over and taking deep breaths. Makoto nodded and sank low enough into the water as to not be seen.

Nagisa couldn't help but feel sorry for Rei. Here he had an entire family who held a tradition of swimming in the ocean, and he couldn't do it.

"Hey, you all right?" Haruka's voice came from above Nagisa, causing him to try and sink even further into the side of the boat.

Rei sighed. "I suppose. It happens all the time, you know."

"Yeah."

"They always treat it like it's some sort of joke, they _have_ been for as long as I can remember. So why haven't I gotten used to it by now?"

"Because you shouldn't have to be."

"It's an embarrassment. I can't even float for crying out loud; I just sink like a rock!" He slumped over. "The water must hate me."

"The water doesn't hate you, Rei. I'm sure you'll get it someday."

"Do you honestly believe that?"

"No." Haruka deadpanned.

Rei laughed. "Always so blunt, you are."

"I'm…not good at reassuring people."

"I know, I know."

There was a silence and the two simply gazed out the water for some time. Nagisa was getting very uncomfortable in the position he was in, but he had to stay put. He was too intrigued with the conversation anyways; he was finally learning more about Rei. Not just the little things he could have from discovered observation, but something actually _about_ him. Something about his past that he was ashamed of. He felt kind of guilty eavesdropping like this, but he was just too excited to pass up the chance at learning something more.

"Maybe…" Haruka finally broke the silence. "…there's a reason you can't swim."

"I've thought about that before, actually." Rei added. "Being the only one in my family after generations of swimming…it seems plausible enough. Though I'm not really sure of what that reason could be."

"None of us really know until it happens, right?"

Rei smiled. "Right. I'm sure once it _does_ happen, I'll know."

A loud booming noise erupted from the sky and made Nagisa nearly fell from his spot. He thought for a moment that there were more fireworks being set off, but everything had went quiet on the ship and he glanced upward and the two above him had frozen in place.

"Was that thunder?" Haruka wondered.

"No, that's impossible." Rei began. "The weather was perfect today. There's no way there could be—" The sound came again, but much louder this time and Nagisa jumped at the horrifying sound and flinched when he sudden felt drops of water crashing onto his head. Confused he looked up to the sky and saw water falling from it. Was this _rain_? Nagisa held out his palms to catch the water.

"Wow, I get to see _rain_." Nagisa breathed cheerfully to himself. He took this time while Rei and Haruka were distracted to slip back down into the water and swim to where he last saw Makoto.

"W-what's this?!" Makoto looked around terrified. "What's going on?!"

"It's rain, Makoto! Water that comes from the sky."

"How is that even possible?"

"I'm not sure, but it's just a little water. It's harmless, really."

The rain then started to fall harder and the drops actually kind of hurt when they hit Nagisa's head.

"Ow!" Makoto yelped. "Harmless, huh?"

"Well, I didn't think it was gonna—" A sudden gush of wind smacked against Nagisa's face and he got pushed quite a ways away from Makoto.

"Nagisa! Are you alright!" Makoto called.

"I'm fine!" Nagisa called back. He noticed the rain was falling ever harder and the wind was blowing it everywhere so it was hard to see Makoto, let alone hear his voice.

"Nagisa, I think maybe we should head back before it gets any worse."

Nagisa looked back to the ship, and the sailors aboard were frantically running about and chattering loudly about needing to brace themselves for the storm and for Rei to get below deck. They seemed to know what they were doing so Nagisa looked away and back to what he could see of Makoto. "Okay! My dad's probably wondering where—"

A blinding light flashed from behind Nagisa and the noise was deafening. He had dived under out of fear before he could figure out what it was, and it was a good thing he did too, because pieces of wood and debris had hit the surface and started sinking around him.

"What in the world…" Makoto started before Nagisa swam up to have a look.

Fire always seemed like it was so vibrant, warm, and full of life. It was something that Nagisa wanted to see ever since he started his collection; but not like this. The ship was aflame and the sailors were now panicked, trying and failing to stop it from spreading.

"Nagisa would you stop disappear…goodness! What's—Nagisa, this is dangerous! We need to leave now!" Makoto tugged on Nagisa's arm but he wouldn't budge. He was too glued to the site that he couldn't look away. The men were screaming and terrified; the ship was sinking. "Nagisa, come on!" Makoto pleaded. "We have to get out of here!"

* * *

"It's a lost cause, your highness! We need to get to the life boats before this thing goes under!"

"Yes, get everyone to the life boats _now_! You! Make sure Manami is safe!"

"You two, stop trying to put out that fire! The ship is sinking! We need to get off!"

"Aaarrg, my leg! I think it's broken!"

All the voices were blending together, and Haruka tried to ignore them and tried not to panic as he made labored tugs at the planks that had fallen on the door to the deck below.

"Haruka hurry! The water it's—it's rising!" Rei cried through the door.

"I know I know! I'm trying!" He tugged and pushed and pulled, but his efforts were unsuccessful. The damn things just wouldn't budge. "I…I can't do it…help. HELP! Please, someone!"

Rei's brother ran over in a panic. "Haru, what's going on?!"

"I can't move them, they're too heavy. Rei…he's still below deck! The water's rising!"

"Together! We need to move them together now! Ready, and, HEAVE!" The two boys had to shove a few times before the planks even moved just a little bit, but they couldn't give up.

"This isn't going to work. We need more people!"

"Right. Goro! Get over here, we need your help!"

Goro was over in mere seconds and didn't even need to be asked before he started trying to shove the planks off. The other two joined in right away. They struggled, but it was working. Slowly, but it was working. Water started to spill over the deck and made it harder for them to move, but they tried to stay calm.

"The water, it's nearly to my neck!" Rei screamed from below.

"Don't worry, Rei! We'll get you out! We will!" his brother assured.

"Your highness! Haruka! Goro! We need to leave!"

"Go on without us, we'll catch up!" Goro screamed through the wind.

"But, the fire…"

"Just go!"

The water was rising, the boys kept slipping, and the fire was spreading all around them. Just when everything seemed hopeless, the planks finally moved.

"The water it's com—" Rei sputtered and his voice disappeared. Haruka pulled open the door and reached for Rei's hand to pull him out.

"You took…" Rei coughed. "…your time."

"We got you out didn't we?" Haruka said coolly, but with a hint of relief in his voice.

"Stop jabbering, you two! We need to get off the ship now!" Rei's brother yelled. The rest nodded and had difficulty avoiding the growing flames. Once they managed to get to the side of the deck, Rei's brother and Goro dived into the water to join the life boats.

"Okay, Rei. Just hold onto me and I'll swim you to the boats, okay?" Haruka said.

Rei gulped and nodded and they both took a step forward, ready to dive. An ear-piercing boom erupted, the heat from the fire grew in intensity, and they both were sent flying into the air before they could comprehend what had happened.

They hit the water hard and the sounds were muffled from the rain, and the ringing in Haruka's ears was horrid. He heard the others screaming for them, but it he couldn't pin point the direction they were coming from. He felt faint, but he needed to stay alert; what happened to Rei?

He looked around and started to panic when he saw no sight of Rei anywhere. He tried to calm himself and took a deep breath before diving below the water to look for him. The light from the fire helped as he swam around frantically, scanning every possible direction. He came up for air a few times, but kept returning under; this was bad. If _he_ needed to come up for air, then Rei _definitely_ needed to.

He had no idea how long it had been, how long had Rei been under? How much longer would it take for him to…no, he needed to find him. He shook his head and continued his frantic search.

After about the fourth time back under, he spotted a weird yellow glimmer some ways away from him; and he honestly thought he saw Rei for a split second, but he was moving away far too fast. Haruka kicked his feet as hard as he could in the same direction, but his attempt was in vain; his eyes must have been playing tricks on him.

His lungs started to burn and he realized he had been under far too long, so he weakly kicked up and surfaced. It wasn't long before one of the life boats found him and dragged him aboard.

"Haruka, thank god!" Goro said patting him on the back. "I nearly had a heart attack when the ship exploded. I'm sure Rei's brother was worried too, but he got onto a different boat." Haru remained quiet and didn't look at Goro's face. "Where's Rei?"

Guilt shot through Haru's body and he felt he was going to burst into hysterics if he opened his mouth. But he somehow managed to utter out a two small broken words. "I…failed."

"What was that?" Goro asked.

"I failed I…I was supposed to protect him and…he…I lost him I…" Haru slumped over and placed his head in his hands to try and prevent himself from shaking uncontrollably.

"Wait…_what_?!" The sailor sitting next to Goro suddenly gripped Haru's shoulders. "Are you saying that Prince Rei is _dead_?! How could you lose him like that?!" He tightened his grip and shook Haru back and forth roughly. "He was your responsibility! His brother is going to kill you when he—"

"Hachirou!" Goro rose his voice. "That is quite enough. Can't you see Haruka's upset as it is?" The man released Haru and slowly slunk back to the place he was sitting, guiltily averting his gaze. Goro wrapped an arm around Haru's shoulder to comfort him and no one said another word, and for that he was thankful. He couldn't deal with these men's judgmental comments at the moment.

* * *

"This was a bad idea! Why didn't we just go home?!"

"I couldn't just let him _drown_, Makoto!"

"Well, you've saved him and he's safe, so can we go home now? The other humans will probably catch up soon, it won't be safe here!"

"Give me a minute, I need to make sure he's okay."

Nagisa hadn't given a second thought when the two humans were thrown into the water from the explosion; he went after them immediately. He found Rei right away, passed out, and he used all his strength to keep his head above the water. He didn't know where the other human was, and he would have had Makoto carry him if they found him, but they needed to get out of there because the debris from the explosion was flying everywhere and the fire wasn't helping at all.

It didn't take much time before they reached the shore and Nagisa and Makoto pushed Rei onto the sand, though Makoto had fled back into the water because he felt uncomfortable out of it. Nagisa was sprawled onto the sand and shimmied as close as he could to Rei, which was more difficult than it looked.

"Well, is he okay?!"

"I don't know yet!" Nagisa put his ear near Rei's mouth and didn't hear anything. "I don't think he's breathing…Makoto he's not breathing, what do I do?!"

"How should I know?! I thought _you_ were the expert on human stuff!"

Nagisa groaned and looked back to Rei; his head was racing. What caused a human to drown? How could he fix it? _Could_ he fix it? Didn't they have to put pressure somewhere? Nagisa's hands hovered over different places on Rei's body, trying to figure out where he should put them.

"Nagisaaa!"

"Just go home already if you're that worried about the other humans! I'm trying to think!"

"Oh no, I'm not leaving you here alone! Not with the other humans so close."

"Then be quiet, will you?!" Nagisa felt bad for snapping at him, but he was a little stressed out at the moment. Before he turned back to Rei, he felt something shift beneath him and suddenly Rei was coughing harshly. Nagisa hadn't realized he was leaning on Rei's chest…had _that_ done it?

Rei's coughing stopped and he was breathing again; he groaned softly, but he never opened his eyes. His breaths became even and full as he laid there very still.

"He's okay, Makoto! He's breathing again!"

"Thank goodness." He sounded relieved. "Can we please go now?"

"Yeah…" Nagisa turned back to Rei once again. "…just give me a second…" He gazed at Rei's face in wonder, it was the first time he had ever seen him so close. He was able to see every freckle, every eyelash, even the faint lines that had formed up near his eyebrows; he saw barely any by the corners of his mouth, which confirmed Nagisa's assumption that he really didn't smile a lot.

He then took a look at Rei's hair, it was so shiny and looked really soft, even though it was soaked. He pouted at his own rat of thick curls and felt a little envious, but that was to be expected from living in salt water his entire life. The color of Rei's hair was such a pretty blue, a type of blue he'd never seen many merfolk have, and Nagisa was completely captivated. Rei was absolutely—

"…beautiful."

Nagisa gasped. The word he was just about to say was said in a different person's voice. He looked at Rei's face again and noticed that his eyes were half open and looking straight at him. _When had he…?_

"Are you…an angel?" Rei mumbled to Nagisa, clearly exhausted.

"Nagisa! We need to get out of here now! I see a boat, come on!"

He took one last look at Rei before pulling himself back into the water as quickly as he could and hurrying to the hide behind his boulder.

"W…wait!" Rei called out as he sat up, but he looked really weak and had to catch himself from falling over. He looked around wearily. "Where did he…?"

"Nagisa, come on!" Makoto whispered, pulling at his arm. "The other humans are almost there now, he's fine. We can go."

Nagisa ignored him and merely peeked out from behind the boulder just enough to see what was happening and not be noticed by the others.

"Rei! Oh, Rei! Thank god!" Rei's brother jumped from the life boat and splashed through the water until he was at the shore. Manami was the first to reach him, though, and she pounced on him and licked his face, wagging her tail happily.

His brother then pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. "Dear god, I thought you were dead! When I found out you weren't with Haruka I…I'm just glad you're okay!"

"Brother…please…air…" Rei choked out before his brother apologized and loosened his grip.

"I'd thought I'd lost you, Rei."

"Rei's…okay?" Nagisa looked to the side and saw a second life boat, the voice belonged to that Haruka boy from before. Nagisa was glad to see he survived. Haru stepped off the boat once it reached the shore and he hugged Rei awkwardly. "I'm so sorry, Rei, I…the explosion, and I lost you, and I just…I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Haruka. I'm alive all the same, aren't I?"

Haruka took a breath of relief. "Yes…"

"Speaking of which, how _are_ you alive?" his brother asked.

"I'm…not sure. I think someone saved me. I woke up to the most…_beautiful_ person. I remember pink and yellow…a bright face…I thought it was an angel." Nagisa's eyes sparkled at the words.

Goro snorted. "That sounds a little…"

"It's not crazy! I know what I saw!" Rei defended.

"Well, then where is this person, Rei?" Goro accused.

"I don't know...he was gone once I sat up and then you arrived with the life boats."

"Maybe we scared him away." Haru added.

"Well, whoever he is," Rei's brother started. "I definitely have his thanks." He wrapped his arm around Rei's shoulder. "Come, we need to get you to a warm bed. You've had one hell of a night."

Rei and the rest slowly treaded through the sand and back up to the castle, and Makoto let out a giant breath of relief.

"Nagisa…can we_ please_ go now?"

Nagisa barely heard him. He felt like his heart was about to burst. His face felt hot and his hand rested on his chest as if trying to prevent that from happening. "He…called me beautiful." He uttered.

"What?"

"He called me _beautiful_, Makoto!" Nagisa nearly leaped out of the water in excitement. "He thought I was an angel! The most beautiful person he's ever seen!" Nagisa dove under the water and spun around, feeling completely giddy and like he could just spring out of the water and fly away. He was _beautiful._

The lessons the next day went by quick, and Nagisa was a little ashamed to admit that it was because he had paid no attention at all; but how could he? His mind kept wondering off to images of Rei and their encounter and he was staring with half-lidded eyes and sighing contentedly the entire time. Miho knew something was up and felt like she couldn't get him to grasp what she was trying to teach him, so she let him go early for the day.

Nagisa didn't complain, so he thought he'd go see Makoto to hang out again. Lucky for him, he met Makoto on his way out of the study and agreed to meet him at the grotto once Nagisa went to get something from his room really quick.

Humming a lovely, romantic tune on the way, he passed by his dad's throne room but stopped abruptly when he heard his name being said by his oldest sister. Curious, he pressed his ear against the door to listen.

"I just don't understand, Father. Princess Emi is perfectly fit to reign by herself, isn't she? Why would she need to marry Nagisa?"

"Their monarchy is different from ours, sweetheart. Our laws say that if a princess is a first born and fit to reign, she can reign as Queen with or without being married to a King. But their laws say that if the first born is a girl, and if she has no brothers, she needs to marry a Prince to reign; even if that Prince is from another Kingdom. Princess Emi only has younger sisters, and her father has grown deathly ill and they're expecting his passing very soon. Queen Kimiko does not wish to re-marry after his passing because she think it'd be an insult to his memory. But that would mean she'd have to step down from the throne."

"But why does it have to be Nagisa? There's plenty of other princes that Emi could marry, I'm sure."

"This is something I hate to admit, but…our home is not what it used to be. Being so close to land and those despicable humans has devastated these waters. Food supply is becoming low, more and more fishfolk are getting a sickness that my magic can't even cure. Making this arrangement with their kingdom will help us significantly and they'd be able to give us support through these trying times. And Queen Kimiko and Princess Emi _did_ seem to take a liking to Nagisa, despite his…odd behavior."

"Nagisa barely becomes of marrying age and you're already marrying him off to an unknown, far away kingdom! What does he even know about reigning anyway?"

"What do you think those lessons of his were for? And he can be properly taught again by _their_ teachers once he gets there; their laws are quite different from ours, after all"

Nagisa could not believe what he was hearing; he had no idea this was even being planned. Anger rushing through him, he burst through the doors. "So _that's_ why you planned that dinner?! Why you still went through with my birthday party even though I was in heaps of trouble?! So you could just _marry_ me off in secret?!"

The king jumped. "Nagisa?!"

"I heard it all! And I'm so—I'm so _angry_."

"Nagisa, you must understand—"

"No! This is kind of a big issue here and you never even told me about it. What were you planning to do? Have me hauled away in the middle of the night when I was still asleep so I could just wake up in another kingdom and not know how I got there?!"

"No, Nagisa. I _was _going to tell you. I just—"

"When? Today? Next week? The day you were gonna send me away? When _were _you gonna send me away?"

"Nagisa, please listen. We had a lot of planning to do first and we didn't have time to—"

Nagisa scoffed. "Oh, you didn't have _time_ to tell me I was being forced to marry someone I just met. Someone from an entirely different kingdom!"

"Nagisa! You are not understanding the seriousness of this!" the King raised his voice. "We are doing this to better our kingdom!"

"Yes, I understand that, _Father_! And I probably wouldn't have taken this so harshly if you would have at least mentioned something to me!" His father opened his mouth to retort, but closed it again. Nagisa then turned to his sister. "And _you_. You knew about this the entire time and you never said anything?"

She jumped at Nagisa's fuming expression; it was a rarity he ever got this angry. She reached out to touch his shoulder in a comforting motion. "Nagisa, I didn't mean—"

"No, don't touch me." He slapped her hand away and felt tears start to well up. "I hate you both!"

He was in full tears now and didn't look back as he hurried out of the throne room and headed toward the grotto. He was thankful that the rock that acted as a door was pushed out the way already so he could just swim right in without having to worry about trying to move it himself. Makoto was in there waiting for him and his smile faded once he saw Nagisa's tear face. Nagisa rushed over to hug him and sobbed about what he just heard.

"How could he do that, Makoto?! I never thought Dad would be one to force any of us into a marriage we didn't want let alone not even tell us about it. I'm the youngest too! I just barely became of age and he's already rushing me into this. I always thought that my sisters would go off and have kids before I was even _married_. I've never even thought about marriage before! I've never even been in a relationship with someone before! And here he's making me marry someone I've met once. I mean, she seemed nice and all but, I just…I'm…" He looked away.

"In love with someone else?" Makoto nudged him.

"I'm not _in love_ with him, okay. How could I be? I barely know him. I just…he's the first person I've ever really felt anything for. Well, except maybe that little mergirl when I was 7, but that doesn't count."

Makoto smirked. "I _knew_ you had a crush on him."

Nagisa gave a small smile. "Shut up." He almost felt a little better, but he was still upset. "I have to see him again, Makoto. I can't let last night be the last time. And…I'm gonna let him see me."

"Nagisa, that's—"

"Dangerous, yeah, I know. But if it's going to be the last time I get to see him, I want it to mean something. Even if I never see him again, I want him to know I exist and that I saved him!"

"Nagisa, letting a human see you…"

"He's not just any human, Makoto. And I need to see him."

"Nagisa…"

"I'm going back to the surface today and you can't stop me!"

"Nagisa! Your dad—"

"I don't care about what my dad will say, he probably won't find out like usual anyways. And why are you bringing him up now? Why would I care at all about his stupid rules right now after what he's done?!"

"No, Nagisa!" Makoto grabbed Nagisa's shoulders and turned him around. "Your dad is _here_."

The King was floating at the entrance to the grotto, the light that hit his face made his angered expression more dramatic.

"Dad?! You…followed me?!"

The King swam fully inside the small cave and looked so angry that his face was turning red. "You went up to the _surface_?!"

"I…well, yeah, but—"

"And you were actually willing to let a human see you?! That is a very careless and dangerous thing to do, young man!"

"But, Dad, I—"

"He could have hurt you, Nagisa! Caught you and locked you up!"

"He wouldn't have done that! He's not like that, Dad!"

"You don't know that for sure, Nagisa! I just don't understand how you can be so fascinated by all this nonsense after what happened to your mother!"

"What happened to Mom was the cause of pirates, Dad! They were bad humans and not all humans are bad! Just like down here. Not all fishfolk are good, but not all are bad either! Mom wouldn't have wanted you to cut all of us off from learning about them. She wouldn't have wanted you to be so bitter about her death."

The King's face scrunched up in fury. "You watch your tongue! Your mother was killed by _humans_ because of what she was. Because of stupid myths _they_ fabricated that couldn't have been farther from the truth of our actual culture!" He took a deep breath to try to calm himself, but it didn't work very well. "I felt really guilty, Nagisa, about what I had done. I knew it was wrong to arrange this marriage without taking your feelings into account and without your knowledge. And seeing you earlier made me want to just reconsider this entire thing. But then I come to find out that you have been going to the surface and seeing humans behind my back and being such a disobedient _child_; so maybe this change of scenery may actually be good for you and teach you to _grow up_ and stop being so naïve about what humans are actually capable of."

"Dad…" Nagisa was in tears again. His father couldn't be serious.

"And you, Makoto." The King turned to face him. "I appointed you as Nagisa's guard because you are his very close friend and because your family has been friends with the royal family for generations. I realize now that that was a horrible mistake. A proper guard would have made sure Nagisa didn't make any stupid decisions that would have gotten him hurt. So once Nagisa leaves, you will _not_ be going with him. Your services are no longer required."

Nagisa's heart nearly broke at the look on Makoto's face; he looked wounded. If he wasn't smiling, it was just because he was scared or in protective mode, but Nagisa doesn't remember the last time he saw Makoto so sad and broken before. This made Nagisa extremely upset.

"Don't blame Makoto!" Nagisa screamed. "It was all my fault! I never listen to him no matter how hard he tries to stop me!"

"Then maybe that means you need a guard who _will_ stop you even if you disobey them." The King turned his head to the entrance slightly and called out. "Hyosuke!"

The merorca castle guard Nagisa knew so well swam into the cave with a slightly disheartened expression. "Escort Nagisa back to his room and make sure he stays there. I want a guard by his door and window until tomorrow. He will be leaving for the Northern Kingdom in the morning." He turned back to Nagisa. "I'll let you say goodbye to Makoto then."

"Dad, please!" Nagisa begged. "Don't do this."

The King turned away without another word and let Hyosuke take Nagisa's arm and lead him out of the grotto and back up to the castle. He saw his sisters in the entry way and was surprised to see them look upset instead of being delighted in the fact he got into trouble again. His oldest sister looked the most troubled and even gave him a hug before he was forced to his room and locked inside.

He buried his face in his hands as he sank to the floor and cried even harder than before. _Look at what you got yourself into, Nagisa._


End file.
